Elon Musk: I Got on My Knees and Prayed

Elon Musk on SpaceX's first crewed flight in 2020: “I'm not a religious person, but I nonetheless got on my knees and prayed for that mission.”

“That was extremely stressful, no question. We obviously could not let them down in any way. So extremely stressful, I'd say, to say the least. But I was confident that at the time that we launched, no one could think of anything at all to do that would improve the probability of success.

We racked our brains to think of any possible way to improve the probability of success. We could not think of anything more, nor could NASA. And so that's just the best that we could do.

So then, we went ahead and launched. Now, I'm not a religious person, but I nonetheless got on my knees and prayed for that mission.”

Interview with Lex Fridman, December 28, 2021